Gun control debate heating up in statehouses

Yet Republican Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan this week vetoed a law that would have allowed certain gun owners to carry concealed weapons in public places, including schools, though he attributed his action to the details of the law, not Newtown. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin this week declined to rule out proposed gun restrictions Democratic lawmakers are pushing in Madison, though he echoed Haley's emphasis on mental health.

The Democrats assuming control of the Minnesota Legislature plan to evaluate the state's gun laws, though no concrete proposals have emerged yet.

"I don't have an answer today," said the state's Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton. "There's a limit to what society can do to protect people from their own folly."

In San Francisco, Ben Van Houten of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said, "Keeping public pressure on legislators is critical here. Legislators have been able to duck their responsibility to keep us safe."

A Pew Research Center survey taken Dec. 17-19, after the shooting, registered an increase in the percentage of Americans who prioritize gun control (49 percent) over gun owner rights (42 percent).

Those figures were statistically even in July. But 58 percent opted for control over individual rights in 2008, before Obama took office. The December telephone survey included 1,219 adults in all 50 states. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Van Houten, whose organization provides model legislation to lawmakers, noted Snyder's veto in Michigan. Less important than the details of the proposed conceal-and-carry law, he said, is that a Republican nixed a relaxation of existing law. Still, even as Snyder vetoed that proposal, he signed two other NRA-backed changes that, among other details, limit when gun buyers are subject to background checks.

Also noteworthy is a California Republican who previously opposed more gun restrictions. State Sen. Ted Gaines, who represents Sacramento suburbs, said this week that he'll introduce a bill to permanently disallow gun ownership for anyone deemed by the courts to be a danger to others because of a mental diagnosis. Current California law allows those individuals to recover gun rights after treatment.

Of course, those examples don't involve new restrictions for the general population, which the NRA has successfully blocked in most states in the past.

In recent years, NRA's statehouse efforts have centered on expanding the right to carry guns in public places and adopting "stand your ground" laws that expand self-defense rights beyond a person's home. Just four states - Alaska, Arizona, Vermont and Wyoming - allow concealed weapons without a permit. But the NRA has over many years chipped away at the burdens to get a license in the remaining states and, more recently, shifted to eliminating exceptions that allow churches, schools, universities and businesses to ban weapons on their property.

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have jointly rejected the ideas of increasing gun presence on campus. The proposals generally take two forms: eliminating the exceptions so gun owners can choose to carry on campus or specifically requiring that school personnel be trained and armed.